February 16, 2004

Bird Flu Claims Sixth Casualty In Thailand

Thailand announced the death of a 13-year-old boy from bird flu on Saturday, bringing the country's total bird flu death toll to six, health officials said Saturday.

The boy died just before 10 p.m. at a hospital in northeastern Chaiyaphum province, where he had been in intensive care after testing positive for the avian flu virus on Thursday, said Charal Trinvuthipong, director-general of the Public Health Ministry's Department of Communicable Disease Control.

The boy, whose identity hasn't been released, became sick 10 days after his family's chickens started dying mysteriously, a ministry statement said earlier.

"The boy's condition got slightly better before it worsened rapidly" before he died, Charal said, adding that the disease had harmed the victim's kidneys.

Further details about the case were not immediately available.

The virus is confirmed to have killed five children and one adult in Thailand, and is suspected of having sickened 22 other people, nine of whom have died. A total of eight people have been confirmed to have the disease.

Fourteen people have also died of bird flu in Vietnam.

Bird flu has been found in poultry in 40 of Thailand's 76 provinces, and authorities have culled more than 26 million birds in an effort to control the outbreak. They say it is now under control in all areas except one part of the capital, Bangkok.